Lee Hunts

I just finished the first third of The Stand, by Stephen King. I chose to read this book in thirds, breaking up the reading with other novels, so this post will cover only parts that I have read. I will post reviews of the second and third chunks of the novel later on. The Stand is about a pandemic, where 99 percent of the population is decimated by a bioweapon accidentally released onto the population, but with a creepy wizard named Randall Flagg spliced in, as he takes advantage of the aftermath. This is widely considered to be one of King's best novels, the book coming in near the beginning of his career. (As a slight aside, I am reading the uncut version released a decade later). Overall, I really enjoyed the first third of the book. This is actually something that I have read before. My first time I read through, the first third of the novel was amazing, but I DNFed the book due to distractions. My reading this time around, older and honestly much wiser, I can say that the fir...

I just finished reading The Men Who Take Eyes, by the new author Justin Little; he is also known as Vernaculis, a former Youtuber who would commentate on politics. He is one of the first political channels I followed when I first came onto Youtube, and he was also among my favorites, as well. He was the one who inspired me to make my own channel. Years have passed since, and our views have diverged a fair amount from one another; he would probably dismiss me as a cynic now due to my pragmatic outlook on life and politics, but so it goes, I suppose. Regardless, once I learned he was writing a novel, I preordered it the moment I could and even got a signed copy. Little has always been a George Orwell fanboy, and so I expected as much from this book. The book is a satirical novel about a "bitter revolutionary" caught in the middle of an endless civil war between two factions known as the Vigil and the Insurrection. This revolutionary, Oliver, is firmly planted in the latter camp...

I just finished the book Sharp Objects, which is the debut novel of Gillian Flynn. Flynn is the author of the Gone Girl novel that broke out into the mainstream with the movie adaptation. Personally, I have seen neither the movie nor read that book—Sharp Objects is my first Flynn story—so my review will come from that perspective. Sharp Objects is a psychological horror novel that follows Camille Preaker, a severely disturbed woman who works as a reporter in Chicago. After a murder, followed by another abduction, in her hometown, she is sent back home to investigate for the purposes of a story. Camille is resistant from the outset—and once she does arrive, her complicated relationship with her mother, and the detached relationship with her half-sister, give light to the reasons. This is not a story about an investigation nor is it really a thriller—this is a story about the dark side of femininity and psychological trauma, and it is heavily focused on character instead of plot. Overall...

I just finished reading Pet Sematary, one of Stephen King's most widely praised novels, one which he, himself, thought he had taken it too far. This is a horror novel about a doctor who, with his wife and kids, moves to a home in Maine with a heavily trafficked highway just without their front door. The highway is notorious for killing pets, leading to the creation of the Pet Sematary, where children would bury their pets once they've turned into roadkill. But there is something deeper to this cemetery, something darker than you can imagine. What ensues is a disturbing, slow-burn story where you track the lives of this newly moved-in family. Overall, my reaction to this story is actually kind of mixed. The premise of the story is amazing, and most everything leading up to the end was great, but I thought the ending did not quite work, both coming off as low-brow and too sudden. Strides (Spoilers) Behind the Pet Sematary is an ancient Native American site called the Micmac buryi...

I just finished reading The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang. This is a grimdark fantasy novel based on Chinese history. In particular, it is based on the second Sino-Japanese war that started in the late 1930s, bled into the Second World War, and ends with two atomic bombs being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The novel follows a character named Fang Runin, who is a war orphan, a child left parentless in the wake of conflict and given off to a family who does not love her. She decides to study for a major nationwide exam that would purportedly give her opportunities beyond the impoverished life of a slave that she is confined to. This book is a visceral and violent experience, with nothing held back in terms of the brutality of war, or the troubles of class in the people's lives. The ending most of all, captures the horrors and the bleak nature of war, and what it does to people. Overall, I really enjoyed this book, my enjoyment increasing the further into the novel I progressed. Strid...

I just finished reading The Outsider, by Stephen King. This is a novel about a gruesome child rape. The evidence points to a completely unassuming man whose record is cleaner than you could imagine. The man claims to be innocent, and eventually he manages to put forward an alibi that can't be ignored. This antinomy lies at the heart of this story, confounding the minds of the characters, particularly Ralph Anderson, the lead detective on the case. Overall, I thought this novel was meh. It was not amazing, nor was it horrible. Strides (Spoilers) The first half of the novel is much better than the second half of the novel. The story was set up in such a way that the plot of the story picked up quick, and I was able to get engaged from the outset. The reason I feel the need to bring this up is because of two interconnected reasons: (1) the story somewhat reminds me of BoneMan's Daughters. I won't go into what I think are the similarities; the overall point is that Bon...

I just finished reading Killing Floor, by Lee Child, after quite a lengthy hiatus from reading. I'm not sure if I'm back to reading consistently yet, I have so much else on my plate, but I'll still try to write up reviews of everything that I read. Overall, I enjoyed the book for what it was. Summary Killing Floor is a thriller novel featuring the famous Jack Reacher character. Reacher is a male wish-fulfillment fantasy: a muscular tank of a man, six and a half feet tall, wicked smart, and a maverick, too. That's not a critique, I'm just stating what it is. In this book, Reacher is six months out of his job in the military, traveling around the world with no rhyme or reason. He eventually comes upon an isolated and quiet town called Margrave in the state of Georgia. After being there for only a short time, he is suddenly arrested for murder, which he knows he did not do. From there, he is sucked into a massive conspiracy that expands well beyond the town of...